


Stardust

by junkienicky



Series: Snapshots [3]
Category: Wentworth (TV)
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Family, Gen, Half-Siblings, Short & Sweet, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 22:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17989778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junkienicky/pseuds/junkienicky
Summary: Whilst being read a bedtime story, Tess asks her big sister Franky an innocent question.





	Stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this on a whim, hope you enjoy. Many thanks to Lutefiskfisk!

“I would feel so sad if I was a disappointment to her — because she didn't live very long after that, you see. She died of a fever when I was just three months old. I do wish she'd lived long enough for me to remember calling her mother. I think it would be so sweet to say 'mother', don't you? And father died four days afterwards from fever, too. That left me an orphan and folks were at their wits' end, so Mrs. Thomas said, what to do with me. You see, nobody wanted me even then. It seems to be my fate –”

“Do you have a mummy?” a wide-awake Tess asked. Franky paused in her reading and reluctantly looked up from the passage to the little girl. “Yeah, course I have a…everyone has a mother,” she replied softly, even as her lips struggled to form the word.

Franky set her eyes on the book again. “Father and mother had –”

“Where is she?” Tess piped up in wonderment with an adorable smile. Franky glanced back to her little sister and sighed as she gently closed the book and put it in her lap. “Is Shanay your mummy?” The young girl’s brows scrunched together in questioning. Franky broke into an amused grin and chuckled softly.

“No Tessa, Shanay’s _your_ mummy,” Franky informed her with a kind smile. Tess only wriggled her brow in further bewilderment. “But you call daddy ‘Dad’,” she said.

The older woman inhaled carefully, worried where these questions would lead. She didn’t mind being asked, of course. Tess was only a child trying to understand her surroundings and the extraordinariness of the world around her. Her mind was at the vital stage of its learning development, so anything that came curiously to mind, she would ask the carers around her.

She’d never asked about this sort of thing before, though. Franky was unprepared, to say the least.

“Yeah, ‘cause we have the same dad, honey.”

The little girl frowned in confusion and it made Franky’s heart ache.

“Where’s your mummy? Can we go see her?” Tessa asked. Her big sister twitched her lips sadly and glanced down at her nails.

“No. Sorry, Tess.”

The small girl pouted as she bunched the bed covers in her small fists, pulling them closer to her chest. “Where is she?”

Franky pressed her lips together and fidgeted in the seat. She unknowingly twirled the ring around her thumb before looking back down at Tess. “She’s not around anymore, honey,” she said just above a whisper.

“Gone?” the girl puzzled out.

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” Tessa bowed her head and fixed her pupils on the patterns on her bedsheets. Her big sister inhaled slowly as her eyes softened. She placed the book on the carpet and leaned over the bed to smooth out the sheets and snugly tuck Tess in.

“Are _you_ a mummy?”

That question caught Franky off-guard as she settled back in her seat and relaxed her shoulders. A chuckle escaped her lips and her head dipped, while the innocent girl just stared patiently. She was too sweet to be true.

“No, baby, I’m not a mum,” Franky grinned. “And time for you to get some sleep, come on.”

The little girl sulkily lowered her head to the pillow but smiled at her older sister nonetheless. Franky tapped her on the nose and pressed a small kiss to her forehead.

“Love you. See you in the morning,” she said, making her journey to the door. She’d tell her one day, when she was old enough to understand, probably. But not right now. Not for a long time. All the things Franky had grown up having to see, she did not want this little girl to even imagine. The world was cold, cruel and harsh and no child should see it the way she had. Especially not Tess.

“Night Franky,” a sleepyhead said. Stood by the door, Franky’s warm smile widened upon the sight.

“Night-night, Stardust,” she whispered and flicked off the light switch until the glow was out. Slowly and quietly, the older woman crept from the room and closed the door slightly, leaving a tad of friendly outside light to spill through the gap.

**Author's Note:**

> Franky was reading ‘Anne of Green Gables’ by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!


End file.
